Chinese court jails Uighur for 6 years for growing beard

BEIJING (AFP) – A court in China’s mainly Muslim Xinjiang region has sentenced a man to six years in prison for “provoking trouble” and growing a beard, a practice discouraged by local authorities, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The court in the desert oasis city of Kashgar sentenced the 38-year-old Uighur to six years, while his wife was given a two-year sentence, according to the China Youth Daily.

The man “had started growing his beard in 2010″ while his wife “wore a veil hiding her face and a burqa”, the paper said.

The couple were found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a vague accusation regularly used in the Chinese judicial system.